Knowledge on the Go

What separates top performing health systems from their peers? For the past two decades, Vizient has explored that question through research focused on leadership, culture, and practices that drive organizational performance. Julie Cerese, Group Senior Vice President of Performance Management and National Networks at Vizient, joins host Shannon Hale to discuss how this work has evolved and why it...

Process improvement plays a critical role in healthcare by helping organizations deliver safer, efficient and more reliable care. Our host Shannon Hale welcomes Dr. Josee Gill, Director of Quality for the Bellin Region at Emplify Health, to discuss what it takes to build a culture of continuous improvement. Drawing on years of leadership experience, Gill shares insights on engaging frontline staff...

Supply variation reduction plays a critical role in helping healthcare organizations improve efficiency, lower costs, and support high quality patient care. Our host Shannon Hale speaks with Marcy Maddox, Executive Director of Supply Chain at University of Missouri Healthcare, about building clinician buy in, sustaining long term improvement, and creating a culture that embraces collaboration and...

Medication reconciliation plays a critical role in patient safety by ensuring medications are accurate, appropriate, and understood during transitions of care. Vizient host Shannon Hale speaks with Ekaterina Kossykh-Burrows, Clinical Pharmacist at Highland Hospital, about practical strategies to prioritize high risk patients, build trust with providers, and drive measurable impact through pharmacy...

Patient safety indicators are more than numbers on a report. They expose where harm may be happening and where systems are breaking down. Katelyn Dietz, Director of Patient Safety and Quality at Lake Charles Memorial, shares how her team tackles rising PSI rates by strengthening documentation, aligning cross functional teams, and creating a more proactive review process. Joined by Vizient host Mic...

Access to care in an ambulatory setting continues to challenge health systems as patient expectations grow, pushing organizations to rethink how patients connect with care. Our host Michelle Lewis joins Tyler Bauer, Senior Vice President of System Ambulatory Operations at University of Chicago Medicine to explore how their team is transforming access through more connected and intuitive processes....

Patient transfers are a common part of hospital care, but they carry real risk, making strong communication and coordination essential for safe outcomes. Sharon Johnson, Executive Director of Throughput and Capacity at Community Health Network, shares a how her health system is rethinking its approach to transfers and patient flow. Joined by Vizient host Shannon Hale, they explore challenges and c...

Mortality affects hospitals all over the country and having structured systems in place helps improve outcomes. Tiffany Harvey, Quality Assurance Reviewer at INTEGRIS Health, joins host Shannon Hale, Senior PI Program Director at Vizient, to discuss why a meaningful mortality review process is so critical to quality improvement work. They reflect on lessons learned from Vizient’s mortality review...

Sepsis affects millions of people each year and remains one of the most complex and deadly medical emergencies facing healthcare today. Michelle Lewis, Senior Director of PI Programs at Vizient, is joined by Shannon Hale, Senior PI Programs Director and sepsis subject matter expert, to explore why sepsis is so difficult to identify. Together, they discuss awareness gaps that still exist across pro...

Healthcare providers are receiving patient portal messages at large volumes, reshaping how care teams deliver and manage care between visits. As patient messaging grows from simple prescription questions to complex clinical concerns, this “invisible” work is placing a significant strain on provider workload. In this episode, Vizient Fellow Mathilde Hanchard talks to Dr. Ko, Director and Chief of D...

Patient messaging has become more common across health systems, but few use it in a way that truly supports better health outcomes. Northwestern Medicine’s Smart Outreach for Better Health is taking patient communication a step further by using automation to identify specific populations and send personalized clinically relevant messages. Our host Myesha Williams and Northwestern’s Program Manager...

Pharmacy driven medication history programs are essential for accurate transitions of care and patient safety, especially in rural and resource-limited settings. Jenny Slavens, from IU Health Arnett shares how her team built a 24/7 regional program that provides medication history support for their community hospital and several critical access facilities. She discusses the shift from a nurse-led...

Preference card management plays a critical role in improving accuracy, reducing costs, and driving efficiency across surgical services. Host LaTammy Marks, Senior Performance Improvement Program Director at Vizient, sits down with Carol Zelenkowski, System Operations Manager for Surgical Services at Main Line Health, to discuss their journey toward optimizing over 20,000 preference cards. Carol s...

Quality and clinical outcomes improve when healthcare systems are built on strong and cohesive quality structures. Dr. Matthew McCambridge, Chief Quality Officer at Lehigh Valley Health Network, joins host Amber Hanser to explore findings from a Vizient benchmarking survey that reveals the positive impact of system quality executives on clinical performance. He shares practical strategies for alig...

AI is advancing rapidly in the healthcare space, raising important questions about how it will be used responsibly and effectively. Host Courtney Furrow White is joined by Sarah Pollet and Julia Bongiorno from UCSF to explore the evolving role of AI in clinical environments. Together, they break down the development of UCSF’s IMPACC framework, a platform designed to evaluate and guide enterprise A...

Mortality is often viewed as a key indicator of the quality of care in a healthcare organization, and something that most organizations are working to improve upon. Through Vizient's work with national organizations all working to improve mortality, key lessons learned have emerged that can help organizations improve mortality within their facilities. Shannon Hale Senior PI Director of Performance...

Value analysis empowers health systems to make strategic, evidence-based decisions to optimize patient outcomes and reduce costs. Host LaTammy Marks and guest Nicole Schmidt talk about the power of value analysis in healthcare. Nicole shares how her team built a structured process that emphasizes stakeholder engagement, data integration, and continuous improvement at the University of Kansas Healt...

Patient immobility can lead to serious complications such as muscle loss, blood clots, depression and loss of independence. However, without proper training and support, many healthcare workers feel it is unsafe to mobilize patients. Host Laura Hoffman is joined by Nancy McGahn, enterprise safety mobility manager at Intermountain Health, to discuss "Mobility is Medicine." They explore how the Safe...

Hospital mergers and acquisitions can be both transformative and complex, requiring careful alignment and integration of systems. In this episode, host Thomas Sauls speaks with Ed Moore, President of UMass Memorial Harrington Hospital, and Eric Alper, Chief Quality and Clinical Informatics Officer at UMass Memorial Health, about the successful acquisition of Harrington Hospital. They share insight...

Workplace violence in ambulatory care settings presents unique challenges due to open access, isolated locations and limited security resources. Jennifer Rodgers, Chief Nursing Officer at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, speaks to our host, Maha Siddiqui, about effective strategies for preventing and managing risks. Jennifer shares her experience developing key interventions, including AI...

In this episode Dr. Lauren Williams, Patient Safety Manager at AHN Wexford Hospital, shares valuable insights from her hospital's efforts to improve sepsis care. Speaking with host Shannon Hale, Lauren highlights the critical need for enhanced compliance with SEP-1 sepsis care bundles, tackling challenges like high readmission rates and resource constraints. She discusses innovative strategies, su...

More than 200 medical journals identified climate change as the greatest global threat.  In this podcast, UW Medicine describes how focusing on environmental sustainability improved their vendor selections, supply chain flow, patient care and saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars.   Guest speakers:  Tara T. Biss, MBA, CSFA Value Analysis Portfolio Manager, Strategic Sourcing UW Medicine Supp...

Hospitals are in the business of improving care and want to keep patients safe and have a satisfied workforce. More creative staffing models are emerging, and hospitals are focusing on more advanced training of non-licensed nursing personnel (unlicensed associates) to perform tasks previously relegated to nurses. Nurses have the capability and responsibility to delegate. With effective teamwork, p...

Chronic illnesses present a significant challenge to our healthcare system, straining resources and impacting patient quality of life. One innovative approach to tackling this issue is the community health worker model, a strategy that empowers individuals to take control of their health and navigate complex healthcare systems more effectively. Today, we are exploring the creation of the model and...

The pharmacy revenue cycle is a multi-phase continuous process, which requires ongoing collaboration across many disciplines. The process starts at pre-registration and continues through payment reconciliation. Steven Loborec, associate director of Pharmacy at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center joins host Jim Lichauer to discuss the details of his program.   Guest: Steven Loborec, Pha...